Medical devices for placement in a human or living body are well known in the art. Medical devices may include endoluminal devices such as stents, grafts, filters, coils, occlusion baskets, valves, and the like. A stent typically is an elongated device used to support an intraluminal wall. In the case of a stenosis, for example, a stent provides an unobstructed conduit through a body lumen in the area of the stenosis. Such a stent may also have a prosthetic graft layer of fabric or covering disposed about the inside and/or outside thereof. A stent having a graft layer is commonly referred to in the art as an intraluminal prosthesis, an endoluminal or endovascular graft (EVG), a stent-graft, or endograft.
Known grafts may be constructed by a weaving, knitting or other process, and optionally may incorporate two or more different types of materials, typically a non-metallic polymeric graft material and a radiopaque material, such as nitinol, which might be in the form of a wire. As depicted in FIG. 1, such a graft 20 may have incorporated the radiopaque wire 22 by either weaving it into the graft 20, or sewing it into the fabric using a suture 24. The graft can also be rolled over itself to form a cuff and sewn shut, to define a pocket between the inside and outside of the graft. These processes reduce productivity by increasing fabrication time by requiring the additional time for sewing of the wire into the graft or by having to thread the entire wire.
Thus, there is a need in the art for medical textiles having integrally woven or knitted pouches, flaps and/or tabs without the disadvantages of known grafts.